While maps are limited to telling the two-dimensional tale of the world, globes have for centuries provided a more interactive experience. That’s exactly the case with a rare item titled Earth and Its Inhabitants at the George Glazer Gallery in New York. At first glance, the piece appears to be nothing but a colorful lidded box. Lift the lid, however, and inside are a small globe and a folding accordion of 56 cards, hand-painted with images of people of various nationalities in their native costumes.

“This might have been designed as a novelty for the whole family, with the idea that the parents and children would enjoy it together,” says George Glazer, the gallery’s owner. Designed by Nuremberg globe-maker Carl Johann Sigmund Bauer in the mid-19th century, the set also suggests the curiosity that prevailed in Europe at the time. It is “an indication of interest in the world as an international entity with a diversity of people,” Glazer says.